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Revolutionary Talk - The Quiet Before the Storm · Plausibly Live - The Dave Bowman Show Podcast

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  Live from the banks of the Sheet Tucket River in the heart of
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  downtown Norwich. It's revolutionary talk here on
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  WREV. 760 AM where Patriots talk.
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  The phone and text number is 209565, Dave.
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  That's 209-565-3283. Now here's your host, Dave
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  Diamond. I was walking through the market
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  this morning and I can feel the war under foot.
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  There are fewer stalls today. The baskets are much lighter.
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  Flour sells for a price that would have made a man laugh a
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  year ago. Molasses now comes in pints, not
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  barrels. And a sack of sugar costs what a
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  musket did last spring. Merchants swear that they're not
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  to blame, but a look into people's eyes.
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  Welcome aboard, my friends. It is revolutionary talk.
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  I am your host, Dave Diamond. It is October 10th, 1775.
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  You want to join me? 209565 at Dave?
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  That's 209-565-3283. That's for texts and voicemails.
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  You can e-mail me, Dave, at Powder to parchment.org.
• 1:47
  That's powderthe#2parchment.org, this segment of the show brought
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  to you by Mr. Tuttle's Patriot Coffee House.
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  Come take your news and your brew in One Cup.
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  Strong coffee, stronger opinions, and no loyalists are
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  allowed past the hearth. Mr. Tuttle's Coffee House right
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  down here on Norwich Green, where rebellion tastes like
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  roasted beans and liberty is stirred with sugar.
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  And let me assure you, some damn good coffee.
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  The Norwich Committee of Inspection met again last night.
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  They have posted today another warning notice against hoarding
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  and unpatriotic dealings. Look, they they mean well, but
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  their words? I don't know.
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  Prices are rising, stomachs are tightening.
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  Patriotism begins to sound like a sermon that no one wants to
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  hear. Nobody can afford to hear it.
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  Farmer by the name of Ezra stopped me this morning.
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  He's got the look in his eyes of a man who used to sleep soundly.
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  He doesn't anymore. His oldest boy is in Cambridge
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  with the army. His second has signed on with
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  one of the schooners out of New London.
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  He tells me that his harvest is half of what it should have
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  been. Why?
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  Because he doesn't have the people to attend it.
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  Look, Liberty is a very long crop.
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  It takes time to grow. He nods, but can see in his eyes
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  that he's not sure the women of Narch have taken up more than
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  half the labor of this town. I passed by the window widow
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  Prat men in coats by candlelight this very early this morning.
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  Her sons are both at sea. She waves, she smiles, she keeps
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  the needle moving. She told me that she prays for
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  the wind to be kind and for the price of cloth to fall.
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  The war has turned her hands from stitching shirts for her
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  boys to sewing bandages for other people's sons.
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  Committee of Inspection patrols the streets, keeps watch the
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  loyalist sympathizers. They have questioned certain
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  households, Loyalist Bob included.
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  They say that one merchant refused a shipment of
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  continental paper and demanded Hardcoin instead.
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  Another one was caught buying tea.
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  No one really wants to believe that our neighbors serve the
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  King, but these days belief is becoming a luxury.
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  Stopped at the Wharf last night before sunset.
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  The river was low, tide was out. Few small boats tied up to the
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  pilings. Their hulls are patched and
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  weary. The men there talk of the Navy.
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  Congress has ordered 2 ships to cut to hunt the King's
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  transports. They kind of laughed at the idea
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  and then they got quiet as if they were embarrassed by that. 1
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  old sailor finally said, hey, it's something.
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  It's better than nothing. And the others kind of nod.
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  Better than nothing has kind of kind of become the creed here in
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  Narch. The blacksmith, Samuel Hodge, I
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  was down at his shop. He was working late last night.
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  He's he's forging grape shot from scrap iron, selling it
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  cheap to the militiamen passing through.
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  Tells me, look, if I, if I can't fight and he can't, he can
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  forge. I told him, look, you're
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  fighting just the same. You know what his response to me
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  was? Tell Congress with that when
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  they pay me. Tell Congress that when they pay
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  me in paper instead of hard coin.
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  Children in the streets are singing rhymes about things they
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  have no idea what actually are. They trade the names of generals
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  like heroes from a storybook. Their voices are carrying down
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  the street and fade into the dark, but they don't really know
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  what they're saying. Norwich just feels smaller, the
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  air smells of smoke and damp wood, every window glows just
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  faint, and I can almost imagine the entire town praying at the
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  same time, not for victory necessarily, but to endure, to
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  carry on. We haven't had any battles here,
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  we don't have any redcoats at the gate, no drums are rolling
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  through the fields. But the war here is all the
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  same. It lives here in the price of
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  our bread, in the calloused hands of a widow and in the
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  silence that follows every room. This is what liberty costs
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  before it ever wins a battle, my friends.
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  It costs us sleep. It costs us comfort.
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  It costs us trust. But it costs more than we ever
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  guessed when we raised our voices last year.
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  But tonight, I'm here to tell you that I believe Norwich will
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  endure. We United Colonies, United
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  States, have come too far to turn back.
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  We have too much to lose. If we falter now, we either die
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  as free men or we win. There is no other choice
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  anymore. There is no other way forward.
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  Narch will endure, Connecticut will endure, the United Colonies
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  will endure, and history will look back at this moment and say
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  they stayed the course. Line one, you're up.
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  My husband's gone to sea with the schooner out of New London,
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  and my eldest boy's gone to camp with Washington's army.
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  Fields are half tended, the roof leaks, and the house feels too
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  big by half. I hang the wash and listen to
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  news, but all I hear are rumors. They say liberty is worth any
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  price, and maybe it is, but liberty won't fill a kettle or
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  feed the little ones. I don't complain, Sir, only
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  wonder how long a country can live on courage alone.
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  I wish I had an answer for you. I don't know.
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  I do know that this is Our Calling.
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  We must endure because we have to.
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  It's not. It's not going to be easy.
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  If it was easy, every king in the world would be terrified and
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  would be overthrown. Every tyrant in existence would
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  be terrified and would be overthrown.
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  I understand. I hear in your voice, ma'am, but
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  we have to endure Line 2. You're up.
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  Go. Good evening, Sir.
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  Reverend Matthews here. I tell my flock each Sunday that
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  the devil does his work through greed, and this war gives him
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  plenty of willing hands. Merchants Ford soldiers boast,
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  and every man measures his neighbors worth by his coin or
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  his 'cause. We must guard our souls even as
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  we guard our liberty. If we win the world and lose our
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  virtue, then what kind of freedom will we have left?
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  Don't know that I could have said it better.
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  If we do win this war, we have to make sure that we maintain
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  our principles and values. That's why what Washington
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  pulled this week with, with getting with, with, with telling
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  African Americans that they can't enlist is in.
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  It's insane. We have to push forward.
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  We have to continue. We have to live those values
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  that we say we actually believe in.
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  For if we don't, it doesn't matter what we endure, we will
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  fail. Stay with us.
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  We'll be right back. Welcome back.
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  I'm Dave revolutionary talk here on 760 AM WREV. I don't mean to
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  sound so down today. I I guess it just it was just
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  one of those things I just walked through the city and
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  that's that's the feeling that I was picking up word from Boston
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  is drifting up. General Gage has finally packed
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  all his gear. I guess it's it's loaded up.
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  Not sure if he sailed yet or not, but the man who began this
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  war by sending troops to send our to seize our powder now
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  leaves with his reputation in tatters.
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  I've heard it wasn't there, obviously, that the Loyalists
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  lined the Wharf to see him off, waving their kerchiefs as if his
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  failure was somehow noble. Fortunately, the rest of Boston
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  barely noticed, from what I hear.
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  And in his place, General William Howell.
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  Younger, bolder, far more dangerous.
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  His men respect him. They might even actually love
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  him, which makes him twice the enemy Gage ever was.
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  Howell commands what's left of the King's forces here in
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  America, and although Boston is still bottled up, every soldier
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  inside believes that he plans to break out before winter.
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  I don't happen to agree. I think he's planning to pull
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  out. I I really think that he's
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  planning to run. Question is, where does he run
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  to? There's a man that I know who's
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  a teamster. He's been running supplies
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  towards Cambridge. He tells me that the British and
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  Boston are half starved and sick.
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  They're eating salt meat that's crawling with maggots.
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  The bread is like stone. The water is so foul that they
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  drink rum instead. Can't really blame them there.
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  They eat, sleep and curse with the same breath, but they still
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  drill every morning. And how is no fool?
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  He's turning hunger into discipline.
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  On our side, Washington is holding the line like he's
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  chained to it. Our army is worn thin by
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  disease, desertion, distrust. The discovery this week of
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  Doctor Church's treasury still hangs over that camp like like a
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  rotten fog. It's said the church had been
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  sending letters to the enemy while serving as the Army
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  surgeon. I've been told that Washington
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  was so angry that he couldn't even speak for more than an
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  hour, and now he trusts no one. Every Courier is watched, every
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  visitor is questioned, but he's still enduring.
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  I'm told that he writes Congress every day begging for powder
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  blankets, as we talked about yesterday, for men who are going
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  to be here for more than a month.
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  He wants a real army, not a revolving door farmers with
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  muskets and excuses. These are good men, he says, but
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  they are not soldiers. He wants permanence, not
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  passion. And I can't say he's wrong.
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  I don't know what the answer is. Boston itself is a city in ruin.
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  Families are trapped inside. They're trading jewelry for
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  food. Children play in the shadow of
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  red coated sentries. One woman who escaped through
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  the lines last week told the story.
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  That chills me. She said the British were
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  burning furniture for warmth and tearing pages from Bibles to
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  patch windows. She said that the air smells
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  like salt, sickness, despair. Outside in the siege lines,
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  things aren't much better. Our troops around Cambridge are
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  just as hungry as those there are inside Boston.
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  Some are trading with smugglers to get tobacco or coffee.
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  Washington has said don't do that.
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  But you know, hunger makes a man inventive.
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  One officer told me the other day that both armies could
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  possibly starve to death before either fired another shot.
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  Wasn't that funny? But can't think, can't help but
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  think how strange it is that this war is being fought by men
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  who barely see each other. From Boston Commons to
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  Dorchester Height, they sit and they wait. 2 armies glaring
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  across in no man's land, mud, slop.
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  There's no Thunder of battle, just a slow drip of sickness in
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  the whisper of a coming winter. Who knows what General Gage will
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  tell Parliament when he gets home.
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  My guess is he'll say he was betrayed by poor supplies and
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  weak support. He'll say nothing about his own
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  blunders. And in London they'll listen
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  politely, pour his wine and nod. And then they'll send how twice
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  the men Gage ever had. From here in Narche, I can
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  almost hear the wind shifting eastward.
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  The sea carries both rumor and destiny, and right now both seem
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  to be blowing towards us. If how means to strike, he'll do
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  it soon, and Washington can't stop him.
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  Then this revolution will end where it began, the streets of
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  Boston. I don't believe that it will.
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  Gage is gone. How may be fierce, but we have
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  learned His army bleeds just like all the rest of them.
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  Think of Bunker Hill, where we stood our ground until the
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  powder ran dry and what 1 British officer wrote
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  afterwards. The Americans did not fight like
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  rebels, but like men defending their country.
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  And that right there is the truth.
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  The King refuses to see we are not his subjects anymore, we are
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  his problem. So let him send.
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  How? Let him send ships, soldiers and
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  threats. The more he sends, the more
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  certain he makes it that we will never bow down again, ever, no
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  matter how hard he tries. Tonight's program being brought
• 17:37
  to you by Fairchild and Sons. Ironworks of Narch, where musket
• 17:41
  barrels, horseshoes, and liberty itself are all forged by hand.
• 17:45
  Fairchild's honest iron, fair prices, and no contracts with
• 17:50
  the Crown. Stop by before dusk because
• 17:51
  freedom doesn't wait and neither do blacksmiths.
• 17:57
  Be right back. So I don't know if you've seen
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  it or not. Welcome back.
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  By the way, I'm still Dave. It's still revolutionary talk
• 18:08
  right here on AM 760 AM WREV here in Arch Connecticut, The
• 18:16
  latest packet out of Philadelphia is making its way
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  around town like fresh gossip. It's great.
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  Congress is in full debate again.
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  See what Adams said the other day.
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  This is great John Adams. He's, I guess he's getting
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  frustrated with the debates. And he made it clear that he
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  believes that if Congress had a had a resolution that 2 + 3 = 5,
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  they would have to debate it and send it to committee and re
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  debate it for three to five days before they could ever agree
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  that that's the case. I thought it was kind of funny.
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  They've been arguing over money war, and while Adams keeps
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  saying independence, nobody else will.
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  They've got problems with this paper currency.
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  It's losing value. Congress keeps printing more.
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  Merchants keep doubting. The army keeps waiting.
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  Every delegate swears they know the solution.
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  But not one of them can make a dollar's worth matter more than
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  it's fear. Read that John Adams had said
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  our liberty will not be defended by declarations, but by fleets
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  and by armies. Your mind of the chamber once
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  again that they will. We can't hide behind these
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  petitions and prayers. Others are calling him reckless.
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  I say he's right. The naval committee that they
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  formed yesterday, that small band has begun to act like a
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  true ministry. This is great.
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  They've ordered materials, timber and powder.
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  Course can't pay for it, but they've written to New England
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  shipwrights. They're asking for schooners
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  that can be fitted for war. Two of them will already sail
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  soon, one from Massachusetts Bay, the other from Rhode
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  Island. They will bear names that mean
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  nothing now, but someday. Someday there will be names that
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  we say with honor. Merchants are talking about this
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  Navy as if it's a great business opportunity.
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  Sailors are gathering at Taverns, boasting that they'll
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  soon trade their Nets for cannon.
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  But not everyone is on board with this.
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  John Dickinson once again pleaded today for moderation,
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  urging the Congress to leave the door open for reconciliation.
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  He's still saying it. The King might yet forgive us if
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  we show restraint. Forgive us for what?
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  We're not the wrong. We are not the ones who are
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  being obstinate. The king is, Parliament is.
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  We don't need forgiveness. And if he wants to show
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  restraint, then he should. But we will not bow down to him
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  again. I can almost understand
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  Dickinson's position. He's not a coward.
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  He's a conservative. He fears chaos more than he
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  fears tyranny. He thinks that law, any law, is
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  better than anarchy. But it's time to remind him that
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  without law, without liberty, is just obedience dressed in fine
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  language. Washington keeps writing
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  letters. He's a warning that the Army is
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  nearly barefoot, low on powder. He wants professional soldiers.
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  I don't. How are we even going to train
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  these guys? I, I, I, I know he's right.
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  Just don't know how we're going to do it.
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  And I'm not convinced that Congress knows either.
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  Last night, Congress spent time debating foreign aid.
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  Someone brought up the Dutch. Someone brought up the French.
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  Officially, we're still colonies at at odds with our king.
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  But beneath that, everybody knows the truth.
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  We're already a nation and everything but name, which means
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  we should be negotiating these kinds of things.
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  We should be having those discussions.
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  We should be approaching foreign nations saying, hey, loan US
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  money, we're good for it. We have resources.
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  Congress is still arguing. They'll they'll argue tomorrow,
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  they'll argue the day after that.
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  They'll wring their hands and chew their quills and worry the
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  ink off the page and still not come to a determination that 2 +
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  3 = 5. But maybe all revolutions begin
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  in these kind of rooms, these kind of debates, not with
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  muskets or mobs, but with the slow grind of debate, with men
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  who still half believe that they can reason with a tyrant.
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  Someday, when the history of all this is written, they'll say
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  that in October of 1775, the United Colonies began to act
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  like the United States. And I, for one, believe them.
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  Stay with us. We'll be right back.
• 23:42
  Welcome back WREV Revolutionary talk right here in 760 AM You
• 23:47
  want to join me? 565 Dave 5653283 I I have a
• 23:53
  letter here from a friend of mine who's in London.
• 23:58
  He he sent the letter says that the mood in the City of London
• 24:03
  is as black as soot. Coffee houses buzz with talk of
• 24:06
  the rebellion, but the talk is not of understanding, it is of
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  punishing us. The king, he says, spends his
• 24:15
  morning reviewing drafts of a speech to Parliament that he
• 24:19
  will deliver when he opens it, in which he will declare us an
• 24:22
  open and avowed rebellion. That ink is nearly dry.
• 24:27
  And before this month is out, he will give that speech to
• 24:30
  Parliament. This segment brought to you by
• 24:36
  Widow Parmitters. Coffee and Spice Houses keeping
• 24:38
  Norwich awake since 1768. When your spirits sag and your
• 24:42
  paper money won't stretch, cup from the good widow parameter
• 24:47
  will set you right. It's imported quietly from the
• 24:50
  Indies, roasted over good Connecticut oak and served with
• 24:54
  gossip hotter than the cup. Widow parameters.
• 25:01
  Widow parameters Where the talk is bold, the brew is stronger
• 25:06
  still. I'll get it out sooner or later.
• 25:11
  Over in London, he says in the coffee houses, men are gambling
• 25:15
  on this war. They're gambling on this war.
• 25:17
  They're betting on which colony will fall first, which port will
• 25:20
  burn and how long it will take to break us some betting that
• 25:27
  all of New England will submit to the king before the next
• 25:30
  harvest. Wish I could get over there
• 25:33
  because I'd take that bet. Parliament, however, is deeply
• 25:38
  concerned with the cost of the upcoming campaign.
• 25:42
  They're they're planning to raise 10,000 more men according
• 25:44
  to my friend, and to hire Hessians from the German states.
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  Word is that King George intends to buy them like cattle to
• 25:57
  marches, March against us on our own soil.
• 25:59
  Imagine that. Foreign mercenaries, foreign
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  troops, sauerkraut sucking Germans sent to subdue
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  Englishmen. British merchants, my friend
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  writes, are uneasy. Ships are rotting an anchor,
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  their goods are unsold. Insurance premiums are climbing
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  good, and our Navy will just make that even worse for them.
• 26:27
  This war has made the Atlantic a gamble, and few are willing to
• 26:30
  pay. Even the East India Tea Company
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  groans under the loss, is still paying for the tea We drowned in
• 26:36
  Boston Harbor. The SIM fire feeds itself on
• 26:40
  trade, and now it starves itself with its own blockade.
• 26:45
  The London papers are even crueler.
• 26:48
  They call us ungrateful provincials, a mob of farmers
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  pretending to be statesman. The Morning Chronicle sneers
• 26:55
  that the rebellion will collapse, quote, the moment its
• 26:58
  leaders hear the sound of proper cannon, UN quote.
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  Yeah, these idiots have never heard of Bunker Hill.
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  The Gazette calls Washington a quote, general of hay seeds and
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  sermons, UN quote. I don't even know what that
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  means. And yet there are still whispers
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  in London that we might endure a few voices here or there calling
• 27:24
  for reconciliation for reason. They're shouted down by pride
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  and power. The louder the king thunders,
• 27:30
  the more deaf his ministers become.
• 27:35
  Good news is that not all the world stands against us.
• 27:40
  The Taverns of Paris and the ports of Bordeaux.
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  There's talk of sympathetic feelings.
• 27:45
  The French remember their own war against Britain, and some of
• 27:48
  their merchants are already shipping us powder and muskets
• 27:51
  through the Caribbean, tucked beneath barrels of sugar.
• 27:56
  Officially, France will keep its distance, but quietly, they're
• 28:02
  on our side. Spain is watching too,
• 28:05
  calculating, waiting. Even in Amsterdam the bankers
• 28:08
  are whispering about loans, though they they're not ready
• 28:12
  yet. Whole world is leaning forward,
• 28:15
  waiting to see if these 13 colonies can defy the Empire of
• 28:22
  Britain. I believe we can.
• 28:27
  British believe we cannot. Here in Norwich, we hear their
• 28:31
  words second hand, rented days later and softened by distance.
• 28:35
  But when I imagine those ministers in London, sipping
• 28:37
  wine and congratulating each other on their coming victory, I
• 28:41
  almost feel sorry for them. They think they're putting out a
• 28:44
  fire. Then what they don't realize is
• 28:47
  that they are fanning a forge. The world is shifting.
• 28:53
  Even the King's allies feel it in their bones.
• 28:56
  These colonies may still look small on a map, but they are
• 28:59
  vast in spirit. We have too many holes to hide
• 29:04
  behind, too many rivers to cross, and too many hearts that
• 29:06
  would rather burn the kneel. So let that king write his
• 29:10
  speech, let him Thunder away in Parliament.
• 29:13
  Let him hire his Hessians and threaten us with them.
• 29:17
  We listen politely here across the ocean, and we continue what
• 29:20
  we have already begun, building a nation from necessity and from
• 29:24
  faith. And history will not remember
• 29:28
  how loud he shouted. What it will remember is how
• 29:32
  long we stood. Line 2, you're up.
• 29:36
  Go. Good evening to you, Sir.
• 29:38
  Yeah, I've just finished reading the latest from the London
• 29:40
  Gazette and the Chronicle and they speak plain truth.
• 29:43
  His Majesty is resolved. This so-called rebellion will
• 29:47
  not last the year. You mistake stubbornness for
• 29:51
  strength, but the King has both power and patience.
• 29:54
  The Navy will sweep your little port clean, and the army will
• 29:57
  March where it pleases. By next summer this talk of
• 30:01
  liberty will be a memory, and the colonies will crawl back to
• 30:04
  their proper order. Mark me, Sir, the King's wrath
• 30:07
  is not idle. It is patient and it is coming.
• 30:11
  Well, Bob, you do love your London papers.
• 30:15
  I suppose they make fine bedtime reading for a man who dreams of
• 30:20
  chains polished bright. You speak of the King's wrath as
• 30:25
  if it were Providence, but I remind you his armies bled at
• 30:29
  Bunker Hill. His governors hide behind their
• 30:32
  proclamations, and they're on ships off the coast now because
• 30:35
  they can't run things. To me, his patience looks a lot
• 30:40
  like panic. The ports you call little are
• 30:44
  full of men building ships, not begging for mercy.
• 30:47
  Mark me, Sir, the King's wrath may be coming, but so are our
• 30:53
  cannons, our courage, and the wind is at our backs.
• 30:58
  And when we when it arrives, we will be ready to give it a
• 31:02
  proper colonial welcome. Stay with us.
• 31:06
  We'll be ragged back to wrap up the day.
• 31:14
  As the night settles tonight over Norwich, our rivers Thames
• 31:19
  tuck it run dark and quiet. The lamps in town are burning
• 31:25
  low. The forge fires fade out one by
• 31:28
  one. Hear the faint ring of a hammer
• 31:31
  somewhere up river, the last echo of another long day in a
• 31:35
  long war that has not yet really begun to call itself one.
• 31:41
  I spent today talking about Congress and kings and generals
• 31:45
  and merchants a fleets that do not yet sail.
• 31:49
  But when I look around this small town, I see the true
• 31:52
  weight of it all. A woman counts her coins and
• 31:55
  wonders how she's going to buy flour tomorrow.
• 31:58
  A farmer stares at an empty chairs, thinks of the two sons
• 32:05
  who took muskets and marched NA blacksmith hammers for an army
• 32:10
  that may never pay him. These are the soldiers of
• 32:14
  liberty, too, though they fight without muskets and without
• 32:17
  drums. The news from Boston tells me
• 32:21
  that General Gage is gone. General Howe is now in command.
• 32:23
  It changes nothing for us here. The seeds drags on, the hunger
• 32:28
  deepens, and the faith that began at Lexington must stretch
• 32:31
  a little bit further each and every week.
• 32:35
  I know men who questioned it now, men who ask if liberty can
• 32:38
  fill a stomach or warm a home. It can't.
• 32:42
  It was never meant to. Liberty is not comfort.
• 32:47
  It is the right to choose our discomfort for a purpose that is
• 32:51
  greater than ourselves. While the King in London calls
• 32:56
  us rebels and hires Hessians to March into our fields.
• 33:01
  I say this again, if rebellion means standing when you're told
• 33:06
  to kneel, that I am proud to be guilty.
• 33:09
  Let them send their armies, let them fill their ships.
• 33:12
  We have no crowns. We have conviction.
• 33:16
  We have no empire. We have endurance.
• 33:21
  The weekend will bring more news, more shortages and more
• 33:24
  doubt. Yet here in Norwich and across
• 33:26
  all these colonies, there is something building that no price
• 33:30
  can buy back. It's a quiet, steady certainty.
• 33:36
  But the world is turning, and we will not turn with the king.
• 33:43
  This is Wrev 760 AM. I'm Dave, speaking from a very
• 33:47
  small town and a very vast 'cause we're tired, we're
• 33:50
  hungry, and sometimes we're afraid.
• 33:52
  But we are still here. We will still be here when the
• 33:57
  next ship sails, when the next decree arrives, and when the
• 34:00
  world finally calls this what it is, the revolution.
• 34:06
  Good night Narch, may Providence keep you steady until we meet
• 34:12
  again.